Days before Nitesh Tiwari’s “Ramayana: Rise of a Legend” opens worldwide on November 5, a moment from its world premiere has given the promotional conversation an unusually intimate turn. Yash and Sai Pallavi, speaking during the final leg of promotions, described how Yash’s son Yatharv reacted to watching his father play Ravana.
A child’s note on Ravana
Yash said his children came away from the screening full of questions about behaviour, about respect, and about how to read what they had seen. The scene that hit hardest was Ravana’s battle with Jatayu. Sai Pallavi recalled that Yatharv grew upset while watching Ravana kill Jatayu and told his father, “I didn’t like you killing that bird.”
She added that Yatharv understood his father was acting, but his objection stood: “It is not good that you kill the bird even in the movie. I don’t think you should have done that.” Pallavi called the moment “beautiful.”
Ravana beyond black and white
Yash’s comments give the family anecdote a larger arc. He said the challenge was not to seem physically imposing, but to make audiences believe Ravana could not be defeated. If the actor is not convinced himself, he argued, the weakness travels: a viewer may praise the part without feeling the performance.
He drew a distinction between the writing and the playing: “There is a difference between Ravana being strong and me portraying Ravana to be strong.” That gap, he suggested, is where the role succeeds or fails.
The actor also wanted to move beyond the conventional image of a villain. He said he hoped viewers would have room to reason with Ravana, recognise his good qualities, and understand where he went wrong. For Yash, the power had to sit in expression rather than decoration; the ruler of three realms would not need to broadcast arrogance at every turn. Instead, he looked for sarcasm, wit and what he called “a touch of vulnerability.”
What to watch when it opens
- Release date: November 5, 2026, worldwide.
- Cast: Ranbir Kapoor as Rama, Sai Pallavi as Sita, Yash as Ravana, Sunny Deol as Hanuman and Ravi Dubey as Lakshmana.
- Music: Hans Zimmer and AR Rahman.
For an audience that follows Hindi cinema closely, the anecdote is more than a family moment. It is an early signal of the film’s approach to Ravana: a figure the adaptation wants us to consider rather than simply condemn. Yatharv’s protest, in a small way, is the audience response such a performance is built to provoke.
Source: The Times of India
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